Paris - I

3-4 March 2006 was when I was in Paris with two of my school friends who were coming from Germany. One was coming from Dusseldorf and was going to meet up at the bus stop (yeah I travelled from London to Paris by bus - saved a lot of cash!) itself as both our buses were supposed to arrive at similar times. The other coming from Wurzburg was going to join us late afternoon at Eiffel Tower.

Now this is where things get really interesting. Me and Vaibhav meet up at the Gallieni International bus stop and we set out to reach our hostel. We got off at Pigalle station from the metro and that is when I realised that I had no wallet in my pocket - some one had picked my pocket enroute somewhere!

After the intial disbelief and searching of bags, I resigned myself to the fact. The next step was blocking the cards and registering a police complaint, just in case my insurance covered this theft. So we went to the police station.

The police were very helpful, they took down my complaint, handed me 'evidence' of filing of complaint - which was in french. Additionally they handed me something they called 'my rights under french law' - which again was in french. Finally, they gave me Amex number to that I could block my cards (they did not have #s for Visa/Master card). Now I call up the Amex number and it is answered in French, so we put the call on speaker phone and the policeman translates what the operator says in English and we finally manage my corporate card. Then going to a cafe, we manage to block my other credit cards. And this is when it really dawns upon me.

All I had with me was my passport, hostel booking and return ticket. No cash, no cards - I had absolutely no money on me. If my friend was not with me, I would have had to rush to the indian embassy and beg before them!

Aside, we also realised, that nearby Pigalle (where our hostel was) is the Red Light district of Paris. hmm...

Now for the photos...



First photo on French soil. I have not yet realised that my wallet has been picked, I realise that just a few steps ahead :(



Our first 'tourist' stop - Sacre Coeur, a big cathedral. This is the highest point of the city.



Made of marble, its white and brilliant. Curiously, there were people around here who would make your sketch for a few euros. And many of them came after me - they do not get to see a moustache every other day, so they all wanted to sketch a face with a moustache!





Roads around Sacre Coeur.



Arc de Triumph. This was built by Napolean post one of his victories and now doubles up as their martyr memorial (a la Amar Jawan Jyot in India). The detail carving on it is amazing.You can go to the top of this structure but it costs and we could do there for free tomorrow (being first Sunday of the month, so we would come back here tomorrow)



This is the road we normally see on television whenever we see a glimpse of Paris. The road is long and leads to Concorde and French Parliament on one end and the other leads to La Defense, the commercial area of Paris.



Finally, the most famous place in Paris - Eiffel Tower and our third friend from Wurzburg joins us.





Although it was just about 6pm or so, it was frickin cold. It was soo cold that I had to buy gloves and had to spend €20 for that. €20 thats almost 1000 rupees - frickin expensive gloves to beat the frickin cold...



We took a boat ride which takes us around the city in a hour long ride. It was frickin cold and the hands would just shiver whenever I would take them out of pocket to take a snap.

River Siene flows through the city and terminates into the English Channel. We were told there are 36 bridges on this river just in the city of paris.






Pictured above is the palace.



We get to the La Defense area. This is the commercial district of Paris. The Arc at La Defense - It is huge and white... (do not know why it was constructed or what purpose it serves. It isn't particularly beautiful either, but then again I didn't find the Monalisa particularly beautiful/worth admiring either)





The building pictured above is the headquarters of Arcelor - the Arcelor/Mittal take over battle had just begun at that time.



Eiffel Tower in full glory. With lights on, it really is a very very beautiful sight. Of all the things I have read/heard about its beauty, I do not think there is one word of exaggeration.



Another snap with light settings on the camera slightly tweaked to allow for less light to come in.



Yet another snap taken from very close. It really looks like its made up of gold.



On the top of every hour different color blinking lights in addition to normal yellow lights go on. Plus there is a laser ray from the very top. If the earlier snaps gave an impression the tower is made of gold, this gives an impression it is studded with different color gems.

Visit to Eiffel tower at night was one seriously unforgettable moment. What a way to round off the first day in Paris?